The Battle For Henry
by Gonzo314
Summary: This story takes place after Cora has convinced Regina to let her help get Henry back. Her "thoughts" involve gathering all the bad characters and taking over the town. The Wicked Witch is introduced to the mix and drama ensues. Find out the real story behind the Wizard of Oz. Potential for romance in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

So this is supposed to take place right after the last episode. It was inspired by Henry's comment that there could be all kinds of characters in Storybrooke, from all different lands.

I do not own any of these characters…

….

"I have some thoughts" said Cora as she stroked Regina's hair attempting to comfort her but also to control her and her plan was working.

The pursuit of some of her thoughts began the next day. She and Regina had gone back to Regina's home the night before deciding to rest before her plans could unfold. Cora woke up early anticipating taking care of Regina as she once did. It took her a while but she familiarized herself with all of the interesting contraptions in the kitchen and prepared a proper breakfast for her and her daughter. Her daughter.

Tentative footfalls alerted her to the presence of Regina, still her Regina, but distinctly unlike the Regina she had been in the past. She had changed, and not for the better, she mused. She needed her mother.

Regina looked around at her mother's preparations and before even a "Good Morning dear" could be uttered, in a rather gravelly voice (made a bit deeper due to the fact that she had just woken up and also that she had been crying the night before) she asked "Coffee?"

"Coffee, what's that dear?" Cora inquired.

"Nevermind. I will make it." Regina grunted.

"Okay dear. I thought it would be good to discuss our agenda over a lovely meal," said Cora as she walked into the dining room.

After the coffee was brewing, Regina followed her, "I am not hungry. What exactly are our plans?"

"Fine." _Ungrateful Child_, she thought. "I think that the only way to get Henry back is to get the town back and in order to do that I think we need to find all of the witches, wizards and all of the people in this town who wield magic."

"Hmmm, so, whom do we start with?"

"With the most powerful of course…" _Obviously. Regina is losing her touch._

Regina let out a sigh. "That means we have to start with Mr. Gold."

"Don't worry about him. I will work on him later. So, tell me where can we find the wicked witch?" Cora grinned as Regina shook her head dejectedly and left the room to prepare for what was inevitably going to be a very long day.

...

It was a relatively short drive from Regina's house to the local tattoo parlor. It was a literal hole in the wall, something easily missed if you did not already know it was there, but Regina did. Cora look surprised and a little put off as Regina's Benz pulled up to the parlor. This was one of the last places that she would have expected to find the witch whose power easily rivaled her own. There was a moment of hesitation at the door…_Surely she must have gotten over the fact that I trapped her and banished her to OZ._

A dull bell went off as the two women entered. Cora took a moment to take in the barrage of pictures and drawings that covered the walls when she heard a voice from the back holler "I'll be right there." A moment later there was a shuffling of feet as an olive skinned woman emerged from the curtain that led to the back room. Without looking up she began to say "Sorry for making you wait, I was…" That was when she looked up and her eyes met Cora's. Cora assessed the woman standing before her. She was drastically different from that young girl she once knew, that little girl who was once friends with her own daughter. That was until Cora found out just how powerful the girl was…too powerful. She was a threat. She had to go and so Cora made her go. Now she looked nothing like that girl. She was grown up. Her hair was curly, wildly so, and she had it tied up in a ponytail that swung across the tops of her shoulder blades as she walked. She wore glasses, dark jeans and black boots. _Simply charming…good thing I kept her away from Regina._

"Cora and Regina. Why am I not surprised? To what do I owe this displeasure?" She said as she turned her attention to Regina, with a small sarcastic smirk forming at the edge of her mouth. "Certainly not to inquire about my health." This was clearly a jab meant for Regina, who had made an appearance in the tattoo parlor before or after the curse was broken. She had remained aloof. Mayor Mills. The bitch.

"We are here to make you an offer." Cora stated bluntly. "If you help us, we…"

It was at this point that the smirk turned into to outright laughter, "Help you. Help you. That's funny. You banish me to OZ and you think that is something that I would just forget."

"Regina had been looking at the floor during this interaction, but it was at this point that she looked up at Cora. "What? You told me she stopped playing with me because she did not like me anymore, because I was bad."

"I did it for your own good sweetheart but things are different now. Its all in the past. Let's not dwell." This last sentence though directed at Regina was said while looking at the wicked witch. It was then that Cora spotted the round tattoo on her arm. It was a silhouette of a tree with leaves and branches dropping down meeting the widespread roots below. It was a symbol she recognized, a symbol from home.

"Home sick Veronica?" She asked enticingly, as Veronica folded her arms assuming a defensive pose and hiding the tattoo from sight. "Look, if you help us take back the town we will send you back home and not to OZ, but home."

Veronica looked pensive and was silent. She thought about it. _Do I really want to go home? _ Then she looked at Regina. It now made sense why Regina did not come looking to be her friend during the curse or even after. Cora had poisoned her. She had become Cora's puppet …again. Regina stood firm but her eyes glistened with past and potential tears. Her features softened a bit as Veronica looked at her and for a moment she looked like the seven year old that she had known, that little girl who much like now was terrified and controlled by her mother.

She looked back at Cora, shifted her position and sighed loudly. "I don't want to go home Cora." As she said it she knew it was true. Home had been fraught with danger and always disappointing. Storybrooke had been safe, at least until Cora showed up.

"Hmmm, you keep telling yourself that dear, but when you change your mind you'll know where to find us." She turned, ushering Regina out the door but before leaving she turned her profile back on Veronica and said, "I would urge you make up your mind quickly. If I were you I would not want to be on the wrong side of the battle that is going to occur. " Cora smiled.

Regina looked back into Veronica's eyes for second as if searching for something for help maybe and then she said "Goodbye Ronnie." It was what she used to call her when they were kids.

A small "Bye" escaped her lips before she even realized what she was doing. She was allowing herself to be pulled into the drama that was Regina and Cora.

Veronica started to pace back and forth intermitantly mumbling "Crap. Crap," over and over. She walked up the counter, placing her hands on the edge and looked at the tattoo. She sighed and steadied herself, knowing now what she needed to do. Veronica needed to find the sheriff.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Thanks so much for the reviews! They are very encouraging.

Also, I want to apologize for the minor errors in Chapter 1. I wrote it in haste right before class and did not re-read before posting. The second chapter will be better.

I do not own any of these characters. If I did I would probably not be going to grad school.

Veronica did not usually wander into town during the day if she did not absolutely have to and it seemed that this was the case today. She slipped on a navy button-down hooded sweatshirt and over it a knee length black leather jacket. This was attire she generally wore on her nightly excursions, which were mainly to The Rabbit Hole, where she had gained quite the reputation for consuming mass quantities of alcohol despite her stature, which was small but surprising sturdy, muscular even. She could almost see herself as others might as she was walking through town. She no doubt appeared unfriendly and unapproachable. Her walk was more of a swagger, something that should have been all hips but in her case was all shoulders. It was a defensive kind of walk, clearly guarded and now she really needed to be.

She stood outside of Granny's cursing herself for quitting smoking before the curse was broken. How was she supposed to know that time was actually standing still? Steadying herself she took a broad step into the diner, figuring that people would be able to tell her where the Sheriff was.

"Veronica, what the hell are you doing here in the light of day? I don't think I have seen you in town in a…" that is where Leroy stopped short. He took a closer look at the woman after having clapped a hand on her leather-clad shoulder. He continued, "Hey sister, you look a little green, you see a ghost or something?"

"Uh, sort of. Hey, do you know where the Sheriff is?" she said in a voice not quite her own. It sounded like what some people would think of as a telephone voice. It was higher than usual and oddly polite for regarding someone who has seen her drink her weight in whiskey. She was nervous.

He pointed across the diner; "Sure, she is having breakfast over there with her kid."

_Her kid? _She thought. She had not been privy to the drama around the battle for Henry's love first hand, but she had heard about it from others. She still thought of Henry as Regina's, something he would probably refute. This was the first time she was going to come face to face with the woman who had come into town making waves and breaking curses.

As she approached, she saw her and Henry laughing at something. For a moment there was a look on the blonde's face that she recognized. It took her a second to place it, but there it was she was Dorothy…well, Regina's Dorothy. Hero's always have that look in their eyes, a glint of righteousness. It was a realization that almost made Veronica turn around and forget the whole thing. But, she forced herself to remember that things were different now. She was different. She was trying to be good, as Dorothy had wanted her to be. _Ah crap, here goes nothing…_

"Excuse me, Sheriff Swan. I need to speak with you its important."

The blonde turned her attention to Veronica. With a quizzical look on her face she tried to process if she knew this woman or if she had even seen her before. After nothing seemed to come to mind, she said, "Hi…uh…I don't think we have ever met before. Who are you?"

"I'm Veronica Broome. I run the local tattoo parlor. I…"

The blonde stopped her suddenly. "Oh, yeah. I have seen that place. I meant to stop in there and see who ran it but then I ended up in a different realm. So that's your place? Cool."

"Yeah" oddly proud of her little space for a moment, even though she had not been getting much business from the town since the curse broke. Tattoos are an odd concept for most of the fairy tale characters. _If the town had more pirates business would be booming…_

An alert voice broke her from her revelry. "Who are you really?" Henry looked as if he would not accept any wavering on her part. He was all business, despite the fact that one of his hands was wrapped around a hot chocolate and the other was in the middle of paging through a comic book.

"Well, I guess I am…uh…was, the Wicked Witch of the West."

"What, no way!" Surprisingly, this had come from Emma. "That has to be one of my favorite all time movies and I have to say that the Wicked Witch was always kind of my favorite character. Dorothy Gale was kind of lame."

At this, Veronica could only smile. She knew exactly which movie that Emma was referring, but it was refreshing to hear about someone who liked her. Usually, everybody absolutely loves Dorothy. _Hell, everybody loves Judy Garland._ " You know, during the curse I always hated that movie. People are all supposed to love that movie…an American classic they say, but you know, they got it all wrong." She pauses for a moment, remembering how it really was, "Just for the record I would have never hurt that dog. I like dogs….Oh, and Dorothy is not that bad, but that is a story for another time. I suppose."

Emma looked dejected for a moment, clearly wanting to hear more. Absent mindedly she glanced at her watch and sat straight up in the diner booth, "Hey, Henry, it is time that you were off to school. She glanced at Veronica apologetically for a moment before standing and ushering her son to the door of the diner, giving him a peck on the cheek before he walked outside to catch the school bus. Emma watched him for a moment and stood half in and half out of the diner as she sent one last wave in his direction.

_Wow. She loves him. Like Regina loves him? Things would be so much better if he had both mothers, loving him, caring for him and not necessarily at each other's throats all the time. _Those scenarios happen in perfect worlds and this world, as most had observed both before and after the curse was broken, was far far away from perfect. As she was thinking, Veronica had settled herself in the abandoned booth and was still making herself comfortable as the sheriff came back to join her.

Emma sat across from her and asked, " So, what was it that you were going to tell me?"

Veronica looked down at her hands, which felt oddly lonely without something in them, a drink or a cigarette maybe… She looked up and met the green eyes of the woman sitting across from her and decided to be as direct as possible. "So, Cora and Regina have joined forces. They are going around the town gathering all those who are powerful and have been evil in the past in hopes of taking over the town. I thought you should know, since you are the Sheriff and since you essentially hold the key to stopping this whole battle and getting Regina to see reason."

The blonde looked incredulous as she spat out the following, " What do you mean reason? Yes, I know Regina did not kill the cricket, but my experiences with her to this point have made me aware of the fact that Regina is beyond reason."

Veronica shifted her position as she prepared to provide the Sheriff with a dose of reality, "You are right. In the past that would be true. In the present, however, I feel Regina is lost. I saw it in her eyes today. She wants now more than ever what she has always wanted…love. I really think this is all about Henry. She wants him to love her again and if she cannot get his love she is going to try and take it."

"Okay if what you are saying is true, we are going to need help. We should head to the Sheriff's station. Also, just so you know, on the way I want you to tell me your story, if you don't mind." The Sheriff pleaded with me with her eyes, clearly hoping I would not turn her down.

"I don't mind. I suppose. It's just that we may need to circle the block a few times because the telling may take a while…" At this both women stood and headed to Emma's yellow VW bug.


End file.
